Taunton man convicted of murdering "best friend" sentenced to life

After more than three days of jury deliberation in a murder case fraught with tales of betrayal and deceit, a Taunton family on Friday got the verdict they were hoping to hear.

Charles Winokoor

After more than three days of jury deliberation in a murder case fraught with tales of betrayal and deceit, a Taunton family on Friday got the verdict they were hoping to hear.

Timothy J. Cassidy, the former Taunton resident accused of the 2007 shooting death of James Madonna — a man Cassidy called his best friend — was convicted of first-degree murder in Fall River Superior Court.

Within 15 minutes of the verdict having been announced, Cassidy was sentenced to mandatory life-without-parole in state prison.

By mid-morning the 12-person jury was deadlocked 10-to-2 and appealed to the judge for advice. Justice Barbara Dortch-Okara encouraged them to deliberate further and to not be deterred.

“Don’t despair. I understand your work is difficult, but please don’t be discouraged,” Dortch-Okara said.

In late afternoon, the jury came back with its first-degree verdict. They had also been given the option of a second-degree conviction, which would have carried a life sentence with possibility of parole after 15 years served.

The 44-year-old Cassidy appeared stunned once the verdict was read aloud. It was the only time during the two-week-long trial and subsequent court appearances that he looked less than confident.

Cassidy was found guilty of shooting the 44-year-old Madonna five times at close range — once in the neck and another four times in the back of the head — on the night of Nov. 21, 2007, the day before Thanksgiving.

Madonna’s body was found late Thanksgiving morning sprawled across the front seat of his Jeep Liberty sports utility vehicle. His own son, 20-year-old Jimmy Madonna, was the first person to walk up to the SUV and view the body.

Cassidy — who met Madonna the night before at the Taunton Holiday Inn for a Texas Hold’em poker tournament — drove around with Jimmy Madonna in the Myles Standish Industrial Park the following morning, under the pretense of helping the worried family locate the missing man.

After spotting the Jeep, which was parked with its engine still running in a somewhat secluded lot of the industrial park, Cassidy allowed the younger Madonna to walk up to the SUV and find his murdered father.

Money problems

Cassidy at the time had been borrowing tens of thousands of dollars with the promise of exorbitant interest payments — not only from Madonna, but also from an uncle of Cassidy’s former wife and a bar owner in Brockton.

Once a successful franchise owner with the Tedeschi’s stores chain, Cassidy eventually was threatened with termination over missing cash deposits. He also ran his own small construction company that eventually failed.

Madonna’s widow, Pam Madonna, is Cassidy’s cousin.

During her victim impact statement to the judge, Pam Madonna tearfully implored Dortch-Okara to ensure that Cassidy be locked up “for the rest of his entire, pathetic life.”

Referring to his “cold-blooded, viscous actions,” she accused Cassidy of lacking remorse for shooting her husband, despite his claim that the two men had been close and trusted friends.

“I hate this man and will never forgive him,” she said.

Referring to her late husband as her “rock,” Madonna said she felt unsafe in her house before the trial — at one point installing an alarm before finally deciding to sell the property.

Noting that her own cousin had killed her husband, Madonna asked: “How do you process this.”

“My family did nothing to this man to deserve any of this?” she said.

Madonna recalled the horror and panic in her son Jimmy’s voice the morning he called to say he’d found his father shot to death.

The Madonna clan has always been close-knit, she said, noting that her husband would have treasured the experience of attending Jimmy’s wedding day.

Referring to Jimmy and his future wife, she said “they already know their wedding day will be so sad.”

Madonna also noted her younger son Matthew has struggled emotionally since his father’s death and has received professional counseling.

During the entire time Madonna and other relatives made their statements to the judge, Cassidy kept his head buried in his hands, which by then were handcuffed.

Just before the verdict was read, the emotional tension in the courtroom became palpable.

For more than two weeks, as many as two dozen members of the Madonna family sat on one side of the court’s spectator section. In the moments before the verdict was read many of them linked hands and some softly cried in anguish.

“Please God, help us,” one woman said.

As the murmuring became more audible, court officer Ralph Tavares approached and admonished them to not lose control.

“We’ve gone too long with this trial; we don’t want to mess it up now — no outbursts,” he said.

In the days leading up to the verdict, a much smaller number of Cassidy’s relatives and friends sat on the other side of the aisle. But by the time the jury came back with its decision, those numbers suddenly increased dramatically.

Linda Madonna, the victim’s mother, standing next to her husband Sal, said her son “had his faults, although so few compared to his true nature.”

She called Cassidy “a lying, arrogant coward. Only a coward would shoot a defenseless man in his car.”

In 2009, while in jail awaiting trial, Cassidy, by his own admission, enlisted the aid of stepfather Charles “Butch” Cassidy, along with an East Taunton woman and a former cell mate, to collect the murder weapon from Cassidy’s garage, and then plant the .40-caliber pistol — either in Pam Madonna’s brother Kevin Hayes’s truck or at the Madonna residence.

During the trial, Cassidy insisted Hayes had shot Madonna. The jail house scheme, he said, was intended to somehow steer police to Hayes.

He also suggested Madonna had convinced him to go in on a drug deal involving the motorcycle gang The Outlaws.

Linda Madonna recalled how after her son’s murder Cassidy had come to the house to console her and other family members.

“He hugged us and said he lost his best friend.” In retrospect, she said, “those words cut like a knife.”

Jospeh Madonna said since his brother was shot he’d been unable to utter Cassidy’s name.

“Be a man and ‘fess up to what you did,” he said, referring to Cassidy. “He was the only one who liked you.”

Justice served

Matthew Madonna corroborated what his mother said, noting he’d suffered depression and had been prescribed medication the first two years following his father’s murder.

“At first I wanted vengeance,” he said, speaking extemporaneously without notes.

“Now all I feel is pity,” Matthew added, referring to the man who betrayed his father.

But now, he said, “There’s a sense of joy knowing my family can go on with their lives and that my father has gotten justice.”

Contact Charles Winokoor at cwinokoor@tauntongazette.com

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